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How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 05:15 PM   #1
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How Important IS TV In Our Lives


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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 06:09 PM   #2
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTien
Is there anyone out there not watching but doing things instead..or have plans to someday cut loose?
There hasn't been anything worth watching since "Star Trek" went off the air.

I don't watch TV, other than to glance up occasionally "Dancing With The Stars" to see if we got any potentially valuable "wardrobe malfunctions" on tape.

We have seven pawnshop VHS VCRs recording about 12-15 hours/day. Most of it is HGTV & PBS with a few broadcast channels and an occasional VH1 or A&E special. Spouse buzzes through that in a few hours unless there's a long series of really good PBS documentaries. She wears headphones (so that our kid doesn't complain from the other room and start a TV volume war) and if I'm in the recliner next to her I'll look up once in a while. (It's amazing how little dialogue is necessary to glean the plot of a sitcom.) Once or twice a week I'll look up the next week's listing and program the VCRs.

Our kid used to be one of the island's top viewers of the Disney channel but she's gradually getting disgusted by the pretentious commercial pandering lack of fresh material. MTV has fallen off the viewing screen too due to her disgust with all the "stupid shows" of 20-somethings getting into drunken trouble & each other's beds. (Or else she's thinking to herself "Ha! I fooled Dad again and I still have it on tape for later!!")These days she's watching her favorite DVDs or the local high school's football games on the public access channel.

It may all seem like a lot of TV but repeats & commercials account for at least 80% of it. I probably spend that much time reading this board, playing Windows Solitaire, researching stocks, or writing something...

The financially frugal among us would point out that I'm wasting $45.24/month for this vast wasteland. If I was alone in the house the cable subscription would be cancelled tomorrow. However you just can't put a price on marital & family harmony!
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 06:12 PM   #3
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

I watch the local news and The Daily Show.

If I can figure out how to watch The Daily Show on the internet, I'll drop all but local cable.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 06:15 PM   #4
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

I watch almost none now............. less all the time. About the only thing I might watch
start to finish is a good movie, but rarely even do that any more.

JG
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 06:46 PM   #5
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

We like all the CSI's, Dr. Who and Battlestar Galactica.

One of our favourite's is Dexter. Michael C. Hall was a standout in Six Feet Under.

He brings his edgy talent to this new series about a working Miami forensic blood specialist who becomes a serial killer at night offing deserving baddies.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 07:39 PM   #6
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

No TV in Sailors' house.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 10:25 PM   #7
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

This summer I dragged a portable TV out to our little screenhouse on the patio to watch Cubs games. I didn't want to bother running coax in order to have Comcast cable, so I just extended the built-in "rabbit ears" antenna to receive signals "off the air." Being line of sight to the Chicago TV stations, we got clear signals from three PBS stations, all the networks and several independents. Really didn't miss cable all that much.

With winter chill in the air, our TV watching is all indoors now, with cable channels available. But we find ourselves not choosing cable channels very often. We're having trouble justifying the $50+ a month cable bill and are close to cancelling. Many channels, little content.

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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-16-2006, 11:31 PM   #8
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

We've been "living" (aka camping out) in the rental while we finish it. Left the TV at home and haven't missed it one bit. (When we did watch it was PBS exclusively -- everything else caused us to feel like our brains were rotting right inside our heads and liable to pour out our ears at any moment.)

Now that we've got the rental on the market (finally) I'm trying to convince DP that we should put the TV on a rolling cart, store it in the closet, and be forced to WORK a little bit to take it out. In theory, we'd see only what we were willing to make an effort to watch, and not just vegetate in front of another Suze Orman or Dr. Weil repeat just because it was convenient.

We'll see...
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 05:46 AM   #9
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTien

Is there anyone out there not watching but doing things instead..or have plans to someday cut loose?

I've used technology to cull out the junk and find that I now watch more. Using TiVo's I end up always having something good to watch and commercials last about 7 seconds. I now even fast forward through the recap and or preview portions of most of the shows. It seems the new shows always want to show you what is coming up, which destroys the plot of show, or they keep reviewing the previous segment after every commercial. I would guess that with a TiVo I can condense a 30 minute program into a little over 15 minutes.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 07:25 AM   #10
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

We love TV
The science channel and national geographic channels are two of my favorites. Battlestar Galactica is also a show I would have a tough time without.
If commercials are the biggest downer for you, look into Tivo. You get exactly what you want to watch, can watch it when you want, and can fast forward through any commercials.

On the other hand, if the shows really don't appeal to you, there is nothing wrong going without the TV, many people do. Try what Caroline did, put the TV in the closet for a while and see how it works out for you.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 07:44 AM   #11
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

We mostly keep the $50 a month cable service for sports. This time of year football is on almost every night and weekend, but it's always in the background while we are doing other stuff - reading or interneting or home repairing. When the crowd cheers we run in and watch the replay if something exciting happens.

As for other TV we barely know what the current shows are, but have formed a habit of watching NCIS every Tuesday. We are usually reading in bed by 9 at the latest, on weeknights.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 08:43 AM   #12
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheryl
We mostly keep the $50 a month cable service for sports.
Agree with you Sheryl. We aren't "sports fanatics" in any sense of the word, but when our son's Big Ten alma mater plays on ESPN, we're glad we're able to watch.

I figure that most months it costs us upwards of $5 per hour to watch cable because we log so few hours. :P But, it's hard to cancel. Since we are in a major metropolitan area where a simple/cheap antenna gets us a lot of over-the-air channels, we are tempted to do so however.

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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 08:44 AM   #13
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Quote:
Originally Posted by sailor
No TV in Sailors' house.
You are my hero!! I thought I was doing good without cable for 20 years........
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 08:59 AM   #14
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTien


Is there anyone out there not watching but doing things instead..or have plans to someday cut loose?

We only watch two shows regularly -- "Heroes" and the new "Day Break". Though when I stayed home sick from work on Wednesday, I did turn on the Food Network for a while. And sometimes DH watches the news (I prefer to get mine through the internet).

Last year, we didn't watch any shows regularly. Nor the year before that.

We mainly use the TV for watching DVDs.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 09:31 AM   #15
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Quote:
Originally Posted by youbet
I figure that most months it costs us upwards of $5 per hour to watch cable because we log so few hours. :P But, it's hard to cancel. Since we are in a major metropolitan area where a simple/cheap antenna gets us a lot of over-the-air channels, we are tempted to do so however.
That's still cheaper than going out to a movie, right? I at least have the excuse that I would only get about 5 fuzzy channels w/o cable. But I COULD have the Basic Cable for about $20 less. No FoxSports on that plan though.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 09:35 AM   #16
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Just got a letter from Blue Cross saying they'll continue discounting our membership at the Y but we must increase our visits from 8 to 12 a month. Well it's a good excuse to workout more. Maybe I'll watch the sports on the TVs in the fitness center while I'm on the machines....

At home I'm thinking of canceling DISH and just going to off the air for the locals and just use it some for PBS & sports and do more things - I could write that book I've been talking about - My Life Inside a Retirement Forum or maybe do tuesday night open mike comedy or Beat poetry readings - I don't think I'll miss the 200 channels of mostly crud anyway...

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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 10:19 AM   #17
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

We have TIVO so the TV is on a lot but almost always to shows of our choice: Daily Show, Kieth Oberman (guess our bias ), House,Boston Legal. If DW watches a show I am not interested in I just switch to a book. Actually I can double task a book and a TV show pretty easily.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 10:33 AM   #18
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTien
Just got a letter from Blue Cross saying they'll continue discounting our membership at the Y but we must increase our visits from 8 to 12 a month. Well it's a good excuse to workout more. Maybe I'll watch the sports on the TVs in the fitness center while I'm on the machines....

At home I'm thinking of canceling DISH and just going to off the air for the locals and just use it some for PBS & sports and do more things - I could write that book I've been talking about - My Life Inside a Retirement Forum or maybe do tuesday night open mike comedy or Beat poetry readings - I don't think I'll miss the 200 channels of mostly crud anyway...
Is that discount only available to certain folks or plans? I have BC/BS, and never heard about it, but canceled my Y membership when they raised my monthly bill by 33% in 2 years............
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 10:41 AM   #19
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

What is this TV you speak of?

We have DirecTV, but since we don't allow our 2YO to wath more than a 1/2 hour of Sesame Street and maybe the odd 15 minutes of Meerkat Manor ("weasels!"), I think that I probably log at most an hour a week, and most of it is 5 minutes sitting in froont of the Bloomberg channel while I down some coffee before going to the J-O-B.
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives
Old 11-17-2006, 10:58 AM   #20
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Re: How Important IS TV In Our Lives

Every night we watch the DVR-recorded Leno, Conan, NBC Nightly News, and Local News.

This is important because:

1. By the end of the day I'm ready for something totally passive

2. I've got to get some good laughs in every day

3. If you don't watch Leno (or something like it) you can become out of touch. I'm not saying I care about Kevin Federline, but if his name comes up in conversation, it's good to know what people are talking about.

We of course skip a lot of material in these broadcasts. For example, anything related to Israel/Palestine is a automatic skip (and has been for at least 10 years, based on the premise that it's always the same).
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